Exporting And Importing Iges Files? Options

[Tim Goldstein]

In the tutorials dealing with meshing and exporting they all display saving as and then reading in IGES file types. I just purchased the Alibre version of FreeDimension and these functions are not on the save as menu. Only way I can get an IGES out is through the export to Alibre function and then save as an IGES from Alibre. But I can not open an IGES in FreeDimension so I am unable to use the techniques in the tutorials of looking at the 4 point patch and clip lines to try and understand the export issue.

Has the IGES functionality been depricated from the product?

Tim

[Miles]

Hi Tim,

A trial of the Beta version of the IGES translator can be downloaded from here:
http://www.freedesign-inc.com/downloads.html

[Tim Goldstein]

Hi Tim,

A trial of the Beta version of the IGES translator can be downloaded from here:
http://www.freedesign-inc.com/downloads.html

I am a little concerned that because the Alibre version already has an internal IGES support that adding this translator to the install will mess things up. It would sure be handy to be able to see where the conversion errors are as shown in the video tutorials by using the IGES export and import functions.

Question for the FreeDesign staff, Can the IGES utility work with the Alibre version without causing issues? Seeing as the Alibre version already has an IGES outbound ability is there any chance to get the IGES import ability added to this version or will we have to buy the translator extension to have that function?

[Scott Hagen]

The general IGES translator package for FreeDimension will be a available as a separate purchase. The 'Send to Alibre...' function in the Alibre bundle of FreeDimension is a limited version of the IGES export tool. This was done for marketing reasons so that a user could get a model into Alibre without having to purchase the full IGES translator package.

WARNING:

The downloadable IGES translator demo is not compatible with the Alibre bundle version of FreeDimension. If you install this, you'll loose the 'Send to Alibre...' menu item. To remedy this, uninstall the IGES translator demo and reinstall FreeDimension. This problem will be fixed in the version 1.1.2 service update.

[Tim Goldstein]

So will the Alibre version always be restricted to not allow IGES import or is that just a current functionality?

Is there a way to examine the exported patches without havine an IGES import ability? If so, what is the chance to get a tutorial on how to do it?

What is the projected cost of the IGES translator?

[Scott Hagen]

So will the Alibre version always be restricted to not allow IGES import or is that just a current functionality?

This restriction is just a bug in the current version that will be fixed in the next service update.

Is there a way to examine the exported patches without havine an IGES import ability? If so, what is the chance to get a tutorial on how to do it?

You can export individual surfaces to Alibre by selecting the surfaces, then check the 'Use Selection' checkbox in the "Export To Alibre Design Options' dialog box. The only tutorials right now that would help would be the 'Managing Facets in FreeDimension', 'Writing NURBS surfaces via IGES', and 'Fix problem NURBS' (keeping in mind you can only view the surfaces in Alibre).

What is the projected cost of the IGES translator?

I'll have to check into this and get back to you. This will probably be announced pretty soon ( it's still a beta download ).